In many areas of the world the search for and production of various minerals, ores and diamonds has led to locations substantially below ground level or the surface of the earth. This is especially so in diamond mines where the mine chambers are thousands of feet below ground level.
One of the many problems inherent in deep underground mines is the increased temperature of the earth as the depth from the surface increases. Temperatures in many deep mines are normally over 100.degree. F. and others would readily reach 120.degree. to 140.degree. F. unless they were cooled by one means or another.
Cooling deep mine chambers by pumping cold air down to them from the surface is often impractical because ambient air at ground level is not always cold at the mine location. In addition, the air often arrives at the mine chamber at a temperature insufficiently low to provide much cooling. Furthermore, moving air is energy intensive and thus costly.
An alternative way to cool deep mine chambers is to pump cold water to the chamber from ground level. The heat absorbed in the chamber warms the cold water. The warm water must then be pumped above ground and then be sent to waste or recooled for reuse. This method involves pumping large volumes of water with heavy capital investment and high energy consumption. Furthermore, cold water does not provide high cooling efficiency since only sensible heat absorbtion is involved.
In addition to cooling deep mine chambers, it may be desirable to have a source of relatively high pressure liquid to drive hydraulic powered machinery in the chamber. Pressurized water is the preferred liquid because it is safe to use and relatively low cost. However, water of sufficiently good quality for use in powering hydraulic machinery is not available in many mine areas. It must therefore be brought in or local water treated at substantial expense to raise it to acceptable quality.
It is believed clear from the above discussion that improved or alternative methods and apparatus would be useful to cool locations substantially below ground level and to provide such locations with water suitable for driving hydraulic machinery.